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Topic: On the Issue of Media Bias (Read 3930 times)

"There are some things in life which must be questioned. Too many people seem to forget that they have a brain of their own, and blindly accept everything they are told. The end result of this mindset is that “The blind follow the blind, and they all fall into the ditch.” This is especially true concerning the media. There are very few media outlets that actually provide unbiased reporting. Yet almost all of them claim to do so. And while some of these “fair and balanced” news outlets promote conservatism, the vast majority are liberal propaganda factories. I don’t support a double standard. If you claim to be neutral, you should be. But it’s very clear who the most blatant offenders are. If you define the “big networks” as ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, 75% of major networks are left-leaning. If you include CBS and MSNBC, 84% are left-leaning. This bias is proved by the personal views of top journalists, what stories they cover, and how they cover those stories.

Reporters should keep their personal opinions from influencing the news stories they write and produce. But journalists are only human. A reporter’s political outlook is bound to sway the judgments he or she makes each day, such as what events are newsworthy, and on whom to rely for trustworthy information. It is therefore essential that the media represent a diverse range of viewpoints, and are not dominated by just one political philosophy. However, surveys over the past 50 years have consistently found that journalists — especially those at the highest ranks of their profession — are predominantly liberal by a large margin. In 1981, S. Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman surveyed 240 journalists at top media outlets across the country on their political views and voting patterns. The results of that survey are eye-opening. More than four-fifths of the journalists surveyed voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election between 1964 and 1976. Fifty-four percent considered themselves to be left of center, but only nineteen percent considered themselves to be on the right. When asked to classify their colleagues, 56 percent said the people they worked with were mostly on the left, and only 8 percent on the right. The majority of elite journalists also held strongly liberal political views. For instance, 90 percent agreed that a woman has the right to decide for herself whether to have an abortion. Fifty-four percent did not regard adultery as wrong, compared to only fifteen percent who did. However, Lichter and Rothman’s survey is by no means the only one to show this liberal bias. There are dozens of other comprehensive studies which came to the exact same conclusion.

The liberal bias of the media can also be seen in what events they choose to cover and what events they choose to ignore. For example, when Jonathan Gruber admitted that Obamacare was passed on a foundation of lies and “the stupidity of the American voter,” the majority of TV networks either glossed over the story or refused to cover it entirely. When ISIS captured hundreds of Christians in February, the major networks ignored that story as well. CBS’sThis Morning gave the story 18 seconds of coverage; NBC’s Today didn’t even mention it. ABC’s Good Morning America devoted only 33 seconds to the story, while spending almost 21 minutes discussing the new season of Dancing with the Stars. These are just two recent examples. But a careful analysis of media coverage will prove this point further.

Journalists also prove media bias by the way they cover stories. Simply put, the media loves to elevate liberals, ridicule conservatives, and mock Christians. Soon after the Newtown school shooting, CNN host Piers Morgan was interviewing Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America when he launched into a tirade. “You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?…You have absolutely no coherent argument whatsoever…. You don’t give a damn, do you, about the gun murder rate in America?…I know why sales of these weapons have been soaring in the last few days. It’s down to idiots like you. Mr. Pratt, You are a dangerous man espousing dangerous nonsense. And you shame your country.”

This is not an isolated incident. On July 31, 2013, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews called three GOP Senators “political terrorists.” He continued, “Like all terrorists, including those who use bombs, their number one goal — their only goal — is to blow things up. [Senators Ted] Cruz, [Rand] Paul and Mike Lee are on a mission to destroy, shut down the American government, destroy ObamaCare, drive the country into default, destroy the U.S. credit rating. Terrorists with one purpose: To bring down, not just this administration but, let’s face it, the American government.” In contrast, the same Chris Matthews had nothing but good things to say about President Obama. “This guy’s done everything right. He’s raised his family right. He’s fought his way all the way to the top of the Harvard Law Review, in a blind test becomes head of the Review, the top editor there. Everything he’s done is clean as a whistle. He’s never not only broken any law, he’s never done anything wrong. He’s the perfect father, the perfect husband, the perfect American.”

The media also routinely targets Christians. In a PBS interview, author Ayaan Hirsi Ali said, “Somehow, the idea got into [Radical Muslims’] minds that to kill other people is a great thing to do and that they would be rewarded in the hereafter.” PBS host Tavis Smiley responded: ““But Christians do that every single day in this country.” Ali asked him, “Do they blow people up every day?” Smiley’s answer: “Yes…” One could literally write a book documenting the hundreds of cases of outrageous liberal bias in the media.

It is abundantly clear that the media is biased. That is the simple truth. What to do about it, however, is much more complicated. Should we regulate the media to ensure equal numbers of liberals and conservatives are hired? Should we appoint government directors to ensure that coverage is neutral? The answer is a resounding NO! The government has no right to control or regulate the media to ensure fairness. The solution to the media bias problem is the free market. Consumers should speak with their choices. If the general public only relied on unbiased news outlets, the biased ones would go out of business. If you prefer news outlets that promote a point of view that you agree with, that is not a problem. But be honest and admit that those sources are not neutral.

Consumers also need to be more careful to find the truth for themselves, and not just rely on the media. Intellectual laziness leads to intellectual slavery. If you believe everything the media tells you, you can be controlled by the media. Finally, the management of media outlets should be responsible to ensure neutrality. If particular journalists consistently insert their bias into news coverage, they should be fired or reassigned to an opinion desk. To be perfectly honest, I don’t believe that third point will ever happen. Each media outlet is usually owned or run by someone who has opinions, and they want the public to be influenced by those opinions. To be clear, I’m not opposed to people trying to influence the public with their opinions. That’s a First Amendment right. Just don’t call it news."